MotoGP Germany: Crutchlow rues ‘missed opportunity’

Crutchlow says he should have gone with Lorenzo and not waited
Picture: Bonnie Lane

Monster Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow ran through the gravel trap with only five laps to go at the Sachsenring MotoGP race after having to make up a top-speed deficit along the start-finish straight and saw his chances of a podium go up in smoke.

The Coventry man was being held up by team-mate Andrea Dovizioso for fourth with Ben Spies in fifth but just couldn’t get it anchored up into turn one, going into the kitty litter and having to battle back from 11th to eighth as Casey Stoner crashed out of second, promoting everyone up the order.

"I should have done so many things differently. I had the pace to be with Lorenzo, no problem, I sat behind Dovi for way too long. One of the reasons I ran off was I had no straight-line speed. Every time we got out of the last corner, they were taking three-tenths out of me one straight - I don’t know why, I haven’t got a clue," said Crutchlow, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

"I should have gone earlier with Lorenzo but I settled behind Dovi. I had the whole race planned in my head and with five laps to go, I’d pass him and do a lap time which would ave broken them. But with five laps to go I went straight through the gravel. I was way out of the my depth braking into turn one because of the speed disadvantage, playing catch-up every time.

"We proved our speed as my next lap after the mistake was my fastest of the race. We, as Yamaha, got forced to use the hard rear tyre as they said the soft wasn’t going to work. I had a problem with the rear, especially in the last five laps with a lot of chattering. I didn’t have a piece missing but there was a mark on it, the wear looked really weird."